GAME REPORT

Russia-Portugal Postgame Quotes

Portugal

Coach Valentyn: "We played three games against Russia. They are different than the former years. They have a new generation and a new coach. They play in a straight way. Russia is a very good team, with a very good defense. It's not easy for our team.

"I'm happy that my team is here in this round. This is good for us and all of Portuguese basketball, but lack of experience to play this very-very high level."

"Next game is against Israel and then Greece. We'll try to beat both teams."

"Kirilenko is one of the best players in the NBA. In 1999 he was MVP of the Junior world championship in Portugal. I know him for many years. He's a very good player and person, and the leader of the Russian team."

Forward Paulo Simao: "We had all the chances in the beginning to do better and scare them a little bit, but we missed too many shots. If we started the same way we started against Latvia, I think the final result would have been different."

"Russia is a great team. We had difficulties near the basket, and they have great payers. We should play better if we want to do better and that's our goal – to leave Eurobasket 2007 the image that we left in the game versus Latvia."

Russia

Coach David Blatt: "I want to compliment the Portuguese team. We played them by chance two times in the preparations. Now it's the third. No one expected to see them here. They played very good against Croatia and beat Latvia in a great game. They have done a great job. They deserve good words from everybody."

"We came ready for the game and respected our opponents. That's why we won. Portugal is very tough. They control the ball offensively and play you hard on defense. They don't allow you to play. We played right just didn't play well. It wasn't one of our best games here, but anytime you win in EuroBasket you need to be happy."

"Generally speaking we can have 24 hours before we'll play the best team in the world right now. Every game in this round is so important that you can't really look back or forward."

"Most of this team was together since last year in the qualifications. Most of my staff was with me as well. It helps us a lot but it's not enough. People must want to come and give."

"Our aggressiveness comes from practice. It's something that you teach, and sell to your players hoping they'll buy it. They saw we win this way, so that made them do it even more."

"I spoke both with Kirilenko and Khryapa before we started. Even though they came a little late we asked them to come truly committed, and told them that if they don't want to be committed they cannot come. Kirilenko said he loves to play for the national team, and he wants to come. Khryapa played in the qualification round although he was hurt and it showed his commitment."

"You got to do a lot of things to stop Spain. They have great coach, players. They play fast and move the ball. They don't depend on one player. They rebound on offense. They do pretty much everything you need to do to score the ball. So far we've done a good job limiting our opponents but Spain will be our biggest challenge."

Forward Sergey Monya: "Today we had a very important game. We beat Portugal and got fourth win in a row. We played a good game today, and expect our next game against Spain. It will be a different team. They are very good and favorites to win the title. They almost have no experience. They have three NBA players and it will be very important for us, and we'll be ready."

"We haven't won a medal for a long time, and we're ready this time because everybody is hungry, and other than two players nobody won a medal. There are 10 players which are very-very hungry for a medal."